Ten Things You Need to Do to Become a Millionaire

By shifting your thinking and the ways in which you conduct yourself, you’ll be setting yourself up so that you can make money. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

I’m SO obsessed with creating more millionaire trading challenge students from scratch, I have a whole category on this blog called “Millionaire Habits“…this blog post is going in there too, but I suggest you read them all as you must study harder than the rest if you want to succeed where so many fail.

After reading the title of this post I’m sure that a few of you are thinking: “that’s easy; to become a millionaire, you need to make a lot of money”.

That’s true, but making money is secondary to getting in the millionaire mindset and developing good habits from the start that will allow you to actually succeed in your goals. By shifting your thinking and the ways in which you conduct yourself, you’ll be setting yourself up so that you can make money. So by following these steps, you’ll be clearing the way to making it more feasible for you to become my next millionaire trading challenge student…and understand the journey is NOT easy, but with enough hard work and dedication it IS possible as proven by several of my top students now.

1. Make a commitment.

It’s said that every journey begins with a single step. But before you take the first step, you have to decide to make that step. Basically, what I am getting at here is that before you need to become a millionaire, you have to make it a clear intention in your mind…as it’s not going to happen overnight so you must mentally prepare for it being a journey, and this journey has peaks and valleys too.

Idly thinking that you’d like to be a millionaire and day dreaming about it simply isn’t good enough. Overall, the first step to how to be a millionaire is deciding that you want to become a millionaire. This step is easy, but it’s also important, so don’t overlook it.

Figure out what you want. Author provided

2. Figure out what you want.

Here’s where you ask yourself an important question: why do you want to become a millionaire? If it’s to have a lot of money, then think again. A desire to simply be rich isn’t going to fuel your fire when things get tough. You need to set specific goals for what you want.

Really think about what your goals and desires are in life. What would make being a millionaire awesome? Is it the ability to buy a house by the water, or to have the money to start a restaurant? Or start a charity like I have here. Whatever your goals are, make a list of them, big and small. Think of the money you make as not just dollar bills, but the means to make your dreams come true.

3. Figure out what you want to do.

This may sound obvious, but that money you want isn’t going to earn itself. Once you’ve figured out why you want to become a millionaire, it’s time to figure out how you’re going to do it.

There’s not just one way to become a millionaire. Maybe you want to start buying and flipping houses, or perhaps you want to start your own business. Or maybe, you want to make a killing in the stock market. For many longtime millionaires, their riches don’t come from just one source; many have multiple income streams.

4. Seek guidance.

If you want to follow my lead and make money as a trader, then I can help. I set up the Timothy Sykes Millionaire Challenge so that I can act as mentor to a chosen few students. I’ve now turned $12,415 into $4.6 million, and I want you to be able to do the same if not better like this great student of mine has done lately. In my teachings, I pass on my knowledge so that you can learn from my experience, and so that it can help you on your path.

Apply yourself. Author provided

5. Apply yourself.

Once you’ve found your means to making millions, it’s time to get to work. If you’re a student in the Tim Sykes Millionaire Challenge, this means learning all that you can about trading, and beginning to start making trades.

Even if you are trading from a small account, you can begin to accumulate earnings. Pay attention to the studies, and continue to learn as you go. Every trade is an opportunity to learn something new.

6. Save.

Yes, you heard that correctly. To make millions, you’ve got to become an expert at saving. Here’s why.

While you can start trading from a small account, you ultimately want to increase your position in the market. When you have more money to invest, the potential profits are that much higher. The way to do this is to save. Even if your earnings are relatively low, save a good portion of them. This means that the next time you make a trade, you’ll have more to work with. Over time, you’ll find that the amount that you can save is higher, but so is the amount that you get to enjoy. Overall, this may be the point at which you can start buying some of those things you want without eating into your savings.

7. Surround yourself with successful people.

To paraphrase a famous saying: aim for the moon. Even if you don’t make it, you’ll land among the stars.

In essence, what I am saying here is that you should be aspirational in your networking. If you hang out with your college buddies who are still working dead end jobs, how will you be inspired to get ahead? In terms of professional networking, you need to surround yourself with super successful people. You’ll be amazed at how much their success can rub off on you. For one thing, you’ll pick up subtle social cues as to how successful people conduct themselves. Second, you may be opening yourself up to opportunities. If you surround yourself with big players, they might think of you when a business opportunity comes up.

8. Keep learning.

This step is key, because oftentimes, traders or businesspeople forget about it. Once you’ve started to hit your stride and are consistently making profits, it’s of the utmost importance to keep learning. Keep up on your lessons in my Millionaire Challenge; read the news; listen to business podcasts; let your mind be a sponge, absorbing everything.

Continued learning will help you stay relevant, and keep you from getting complacent. Lifelong learning is a common habit of longtime millionaires, and it should be one of your habits, too.

9. Keep getting better.

In addition to continuing to learn, continue to improve. This requires a degree of self analysis. Look at your progress, and be able to evaluate how to streamline your process. Also be able to evaluate your weaknesses and bad habits, and work hard to eradicate them.

Consider this your secondary intention: to keep getting better all the time, and to remain in that beginner’s mindset where you know you still have so much work to do.

Love what you do. Author provided

10. Love what you do.

Whether you’re trading, flipping houses, or whatever, learn to love it. Learning to love the process of what you do is not always vital to attaining success, but it’s essential to maintaining success. If you don’t love what you do, you’ll burn out sooner or later. So why not learn to enjoy the ride so that you can enjoy a long and healthy career?

Overall, so much of the process of how to be a millionaire is in your mindset. By doing the ten things listed in this post, you’ll be setting yourself up make millions in a smart and sustainable way.

So do you want to become a millionaire and are you willing to work your butt off to actually make it happen?

Timothy Sykes is an entrepreneur and a stock market expert, self-made millionaire stock trader, former hedge fund manager and author of the bestselling book “An American Hedge Fund”. He has several millionaire students now and has been featured on CNN, Fox News, CNBC and more and has spoken at prestigious institutions such as Harvard University. Watch his media appearances and speeches on YouTube here. This article originally appeared on timothysykes.com.